this is the second oneshot i promised i was going to write, mentioned in my previous OS; Blondes, Breakups and Odango. enjoy!
disclaimer: Durarara! is copyright to Narita Ryohgo; Miku belongs to me.
Snow fell gently.
The change in weather didn't alter the normal course of pedestrians; they went about their business and intended destinations as if it were a clear day in spring.
Life in the center of Ikebukuro remained the same.
"I thought you were coming home next week."
She exhaled as she twiddled with the neglected cat-tail toy in her fingers, ignoring the various swipes the bobtailed feline made for the top vibrant feather of the plaything. "I can't, Mom, Harada-san said my next volume was due by next week so I won't be able to go back home unless I finish the draft."
Sometimes she wondered where on earth she had gained her tenacity; though right now she was pretty damn-sure that she now knew where her tenacity came from.
Volume seven was due to be finalized and published by the first week of February and she was incapable of going to Osaka without some form of monetary support; her mother never understood, anyway, when it came to her artwork.
It wasn't a practical job, she had deemed upon her graduation from art school.
"But it's New Year's! Miku, surely one day away from that blasted computer won't kill you…" Her mother began to argue.
"I know what day it is, Mother." She softened her slightly-curt rebuttal with a quiet exhale. "Look, I'll visit a week after Valentine's Day, okay? Can we settle on that? Please?"
Seeming to hesitate, her mother finally exhaled and complied. "Fine, fine. I hope that boy is treating you to a nice dinner for Valentine's Day… What was his name, again?" Of course her social life never meant much to her mother after she got out of high school.
"Heiwajima Shizuo." She answered with a slight smile at the mention of her boyfriend.
'Boy' wasn't really the term she chose to apply to him, in all actuality; neither of them were in high school and they both were adults. Of course saying 'her man' was a dub that would have her mother turn puce at, so she kept it innocent.
The orange and black bobtail meowed as she leaped up to snatch the toy from her master, nicking her left index knuckle in the process –for all she knew, to get her attention in her own manner.
"Ow! Rin!" She griped, wincing a little and sucking on the lightly-bleeding cut, scowling down at the satisfied cat.
"Honestly, why do you keep that flea-bag in your apartment? You know cats aren't without disease nowadays." Her mother wondered in slight exasperation on the opposite line.
She sent another scowl at the feline playing with her toy's feathers. "Rin is perfectly healthy as ten horses, and she's low maintenance compared to a dog; I love cats, too." She defended with a sniff.
She sighed on the other line. "If you say so; I just don't want to have to travel up there to Tokyo to see you strapped to a hospital bed dying of lung cancer or something because of that… fur-ball." Her tone softened as it often did whenever she brought up coming to Tokyo. "You know we love you, Miku." She seemed to smile.
"I love you guys, too. Give Dad a hug for me, please? I've gotta tend to the stupid papercut I got." She smiled tenderly at the image of her father's jovial grin he often wore when she was little as it flashed in her mind.
"All right, be safe over there; we love you, Miku, and happy early New Year. Bye." Her mother chuckled quietly before hanging up.
She smiled again and closed the phone, placing it on the desk and scowling again at her cat. "Up to this point I had no idea cats went through menstrual cycles too, even after they were fixed." She said pointedly.
Rin meowed innocently up at her as if to say, 'Dunno what you're referring to… But you didn't give me the shiny feather to begin with, girl.'
Miku stuck her tongue out at the cat and unglued herself from her computer chair to shuffle to the bathroom for a Band-Aid.
After snagging a bottle of Coke from her refrigerator, she trodded back to the PC and surveyed the work she'd completed prior to the unexpected call from her mother and smiled to herself, turning in the chair to snag her stereo remote from the cubby-hole shelf attached to her computer desk, fiddling with opening the bottle in one hand and using her injured hand to turn on the stereo placed to the right of her.
'Fell Down a Hole' started playing on the stereo's loud speakers; she took a swig and winced slightly at the loudness before turning it down a few notches using the remote, putting the bottle down on the colorful-checkered coaster and lifting up her pen and tablet.
Gotta love Wolfmother.
It was at least another two hours later when a small window popped up on her computer screen, pointing out the date and a small icon of a birthday cake next to the recorded date.
Of course, it was only two weeks before Valentine's Day, and three days before New Years' day; what kind of idiot would forget his birthday? She'd already learned her mistake a year ago.
Cooking was definitely not an option; she couldn't cook much except rice and noodles, and she couldn't bake anything other than cookies… Russia Sushi again? Nah, that seemed too vague.
Putting her pen down, she scowled briefly at the finished product of the second-to-last chapter she'd tweaked and added the little dabs of "pixie dust" to, sitting back in her chair. "Got any bright ideas, Rin?" She asked, looking to her cat that was lounging on the top of the couch, one leg dangled over the edge and her green eyes closed.
Again, the cat said nothing (not like she expected her to).
"Maybe Celty would know," she muttered, flipping her phone open and jotting down a text to the dullahan that if she could visit.
Her phone buzzed just as she finished closing the program and put away her tablet and pen, flipping it open again.
{Yeah, sure. – Celty :D}
She smiled and closed it again, taking a glance at the snowy world beyond her apartment window before she trodded to the coat closet in the small hallway and opened it to pull out her favored red jacket and her black leather jacket she wore on occasion, kicking the door closed with a foot as she pulled the red jacket on and did the same with the leather one, tugging the hood out to cover her head.
The bobtailed cat meowed lazily as she watched her owner shut the computer off and snag her phone and keys, slipping her boots on.
"See you later, Rin-chan." She smiled at the feline before shuffling out the door and trotting to the elevator.
::::::::xx::::::::
Once outside and on her black Vespa hitting the streets of Tokyo, she felt at ease for once. It had only been a year since the chaos of the previous year had gone down and she was glad for it.
Life had reached some sort of peaceful impasse as it had at some point in time she didn't recall nor cared to think on.
Her ex had, for all intents and purposes, not left much of a trace of his existence in Tokyo, namely in 'Bukuro; she hadn't dared contemplate going to snoop around the Shinjuku district for fear of causing some sort of chain-reaction that would cause hell and disturb the impasse of peace that had plagued her town.
Good riddance; life with him around was enough hell that it was almost too much for one mangaka to handle!
She slid her hands out of the pockets of her jacket to rub them briskly, exhaling in relief at being inside a warm building once again.
Though if she had to cut him slack for one thing, it was that because of his insanity-borderline-sociopathic-ways, she was finally happy with her life, and happy with the man he had always deemed a monster to society.
Of course she would never tell him –if by some horrific curse their paths were to cross— 'thank you', not if she wanted to eat nails or get run over by a truck.
The bright bespectacled face of Kishitani Shinra met her when she rang the doorbell, pulling her from her thoughts. "Kazamura-chan, it's good to see you! Come in," he smiled lightly as he stepped aside to let her in and toe off her boots.
"Thanks for helping, Shinra-kun, you and Celty." Miku smiled back and placed her boots by the door, traipsing at his side further into the apartment to plop down at the table.
The black-clad dullahan started tapping on her PDA screen, showing it to her friend.
[You needed help with what to do for Shizuo-kun's birthday, I guess?]
"Yeah, actually. I ruled out Russia Sushi because it'd be really vague if I took him there like last year, and I'm not that confident in the kitchen. Can you two think of something he'd like?" She rubbed her neck, looking between the two fiancé-roommates.
"Hm, well he has a sweet tooth, and he likes dairy… A cheesecake? A strawberry cheesecake with chocolate chips sprinkled on it would be great." Shinra offered, smiling dreamily at the image of such a masterpiece.
Both women sweatdropped simultaneously.
[Shinra might be on to something, actually. But it'd probably be easier if you made the cheesecake without the sprinkled chocolate chips added to it.] Celty chimed.
Miku nodded, tapping her chin with a finger. "That sounds like an idea."
"I knew you'd love my plan, Celty! But what can I expect from the beautiful dullahan that has expressed her love for a humble doctor like me… O-ow, Celty!" Shinra yelped when she pulled on his right cheek reproachfully with some of her gathered shadowy tendrils, earning a sweatdrop from the mangaka.
"I think I'll leave you two be then; thanks for the help, though." She straightened, smiling warmly at both of her friends.
Rin meowed and shook her short pelt of flour that flew up from the kitchen island.
"Don't patronize me, Rin." The mangaka grumbled, wiping her brow and face of the white powder, brows pulling together into a determined scowl as she consulted the paper again.
Okay, stir the mix; done. Hm, put mix into container and then place it in the refrigerator…
Miku followed the recipe as best as possible, and it was at least an hour and a half later that she placed the finished cheesecake in the middle shelf of her fridge (she'd made room prior).
A relieved sigh escaped her as she paused short of closing the door to admire the two-layer cake she'd made, a halo of sliced strawberries topping off the top layer and another two lines of diced strawberries in an X-formation in the middle.
"Perfect." She closed the door as gently as possible, stepping back and then blinking when she noticed there was flour in her hair; she pouted. "Great." A shower couldn't hurt.
Glancing at the alarm clock on her nightstand after effectively cleaning the flour and other dabs of mix off her skin –namely her arms and cheekbones, she noted he would be over in less than thirty minutes. Pulling on a black skirt that came to just an inch above the knee, she shrugged on a light gray t-shirt that was more of a low collared baby-tee with the visage of the British flag on the front and the simple tagline 'Kiss Me, I'm British' on the bottom hem of the back of her shirt, she examined her reflection in the tall mirror on the back of her bathroom door.
She ran her fingers through her cobalt black hair she blow-dried, smiling at her blue stare in the mirror.
::::::::xx::::::::
"I still don't see why you wanted to go out for Chinese. It's nothing that special." Smoke rose up from his lit cigarette, trailing behind them as the couple walked back to her apartment.
She puffed her cheeks out and folded her arms as best as possible while wearing her leather jacket, pouting. "It's special to me because it's your birthday. Besides, you didn't pay for it; I wanted to treat you, remember?"
The blonde strongman took a drag from the cigarette, sighing the smoke out before placing it back in place between his puckered lips, placing his hands back into the pockets of his vest. "Yeah, I know. S' not that I don't appreciate it, just kinda think it's too much." He remarked patiently.
"Shizuo…" She rubbed her temples and exhaled, pinching the bridge of her nose.
He looked at her with a raised brow, "Hm?"
"Come on, it's freezing out here." Miku muttered, trudging ahead of him to the elevator as they entered the main lobby of her complex, pushing the button.
Shizuo followed after snubbing his cigarette and tossing it into the nearby ashtray, shuffling inside with her as she pressed the button for her floor, the doors closing on them. He glanced again at her choice in clothing, namely the black skirt that had seemed to catch the eye of other guys at that restaurant; he'd managed to curb his temper and not get them thrown out of there, blessedly enough. Noting she was quiet as the elevator traveled higher to the tenth floor, he recognized that she had indeed wanted to celebrate his birthday.
Dumbass, don't mess this up; not today.
Déjà vu struck him as he remembered they had been like this a year ago; that's right that was the first time he kissed her… Their first kiss, as sappy as it sounded.
The feeling faded as she unlocked her door, letting him in; hesitating if only to briefly recall the warm kiss they'd had a year ago on that same spot, he followed her inside, toeing off his shoes as she kicked her boots off and pulled her jacket off to let it drape over the couch.
He watched her shuffle into the kitchen, leaving him to sit down on the arm of her couch after pulling his blue scarf from his shoulders and tuck his shades into the pocket of his vest.
Her cat meowed as she rubbed against his legs, seeming content to see him present; he smiled a little, exhaling and rubbing the back of his neck, following her into the kitchen if only to apologize for being half of an ass about his birthday. "Miku," he said.
She looked up from checking on the cake, closing the door. "What is it?" She quirked a brow.
His ears burned slightly as he resorted to action instead of tripping over his words like he used to do when they were younger, leaning down to kiss her.
Miku blinked once at his sudden kiss before she smiled softly at recognizing the meaning of his actions, reciprocating tenderly and lifting her arms to drape over his shoulders, hands linking by the wrist.
Shizuo smirked bemusedly against her lips at feeling her weight press onto his body, his own arms finding her hips as he deepened the kiss mostly on curiosity to see what she would do, feeling her fingers tug on the shaggy blonde locks on his head.
Backing down reluctantly when realizing she was losing the squabble for dominance against him, Miku pulled away a little to regain her breath, blushing when recognizing he'd pinned her to the fridge; a breathy giggle came from her when hearing him growl slightly in remorse that she'd withdrawn, seeing his brown eyes squint knowingly at her.
Shizuo grumbled as she lightly curled her fingers in his blonde hair, his arms around her squeezing. "Don't laugh when I'm trying to apologize to ya." He groused.
She tilted her head slightly, distinctly seeing his ears turn pink at her gesture. "What for?" She asked.
"For being an asshat about you taking me out for my birthday. S' not like I'm used to this just yet, being in a relationship that lasted a year." He explained, dropping his gaze out of shyness he was surprised to see still existed.
He'd known her long enough to not be so shy around his mangaka prizefighter.
"I guess we're both trying to get used to things, aren't we?" She allowed another giggle, seeing him pout slightly, which earned a gentle smile and her fingers to brush his hair back absently. "I'm just glad we're still together, even though we've both been through hell and back… But the point is that you're here with me, and I'm glad for it. I really am." She shrugged, smiling lightly.
He ignored the blush on his cheeks at hearing her and seeing her smile his smile, drawing back and letting her go reluctantly, smiling back. "So where's this big surprise you were hinting at?" He asked to change subject, seeing her blink.
"Right, I almost forgot." That kiss would prolly be responsible for it. She turned to open the fridge and pull out a pastry, placing it on the island counter for him to see. She couldn't fight the grin at seeing him blink once or twice as he marveled at the cheesecake she'd made.
"Did you make this?" Shizuo asked, looking at her as she turned to grab a pair of forks from her silverware drawer.
"Yep, all on me own." Miku giggled and handed him his fork, blushing a shade of pink as she smiled humbly. "Hope it tastes good; busted my ass just getting the mix right. I didn't buy you anything, so this was better, I guess you could say. Happy birthday, Shizuo." She shrugged again, keeping her smile.
He couldn't fight the small grin at not only seeing her blush but to hear she actually made something for him; he stroked her hair gently with his free hand, meeting her soft blue stare. He kissed her lightly, stroking her cheek.
Thank you, Miku.
and the rest of that... is not being published. mostly on account of my being lazy plus the fact that i had intended to keep this PG-13 with light smut.
also, i know this is at least six months ahead of Shizu-chan's birthday but i really wanted to finish this oneshot, soo drop some feedback people! lol that's all for now. later!